Quick Guide to Safeguarding

Safeguarding checklist.

1. Is this something I need to share ASAP - is anyone at risk? (even if it appears small and insignificant).
2. Have I insured the student is ready for me to pass the information on?
3. Have I passed it on to a DSL?
4. Have I put it on CPOMs?
5. Have I made sure that if something goes wrong, I’ve done all I can. 

What is Safeguarding?

Safeguarding is all the actions we take daily to keep students and staff safe. We have the following people whose job it is make sure this is happening.

These people are:

• Nick Hurst - Designated Safeguarding Lead at Running Deer School (DSL).
• Emma Craig - Designated Safeguarding Officer at Running Deer School (DSO).

• Jo Winterburn - Designated Safeguarding Lead at Running Deer C.I.C (DSL Proprietor)

• Adam Baxter - Designated Safeguarding Lead at Running Deer interventions Service (DSL)
• Chris Bollons - Designated Safeguarding Officer at Running Deer interventions Service (DSO)

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Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility.

Information of concern MUST be passed immediately to one of those 3 people. It takes priority over everything else. It needs to be done quickly so that we can act upon it.

The decision on how important this information is the DSLs.

This means:

• anything new,
• out of the ordinary,
• extension of known issues or disclosures of harm,
• anything that raises concerns,
• anything to do with staff or student safety,
• Report it.

At Running Deer we use a system called CPOMs to record safeguarding concerns. CPOMs stands of Child Protection Online Monitoring system. 

Written records must be made as soon as possible, they must be clear, factual and in the students’ words - no matter how rude!  

This may be the only time they say something, or it might be the final piece to a puzzle. Its vital that these records are of high quality as we may rely on them many years in the future. 

**CPOMs is for recording information only and should not be relied upon to report issues.**

Safeguarding shouldn’t be discussed openly at a 'go around' or in peer groups. It creates issues of corroboration, independence, and confirmation bias.

Once a week Nick (Running Deer School) Adam (Running Deer Interventions Service) and Jo (Running Deer C.I.C) meet to make sure the proprietor (Jo) has scrutiny over safeguarding and to ensure all actions are appropriate. You might not hear/get any feedback on what’s happened, but you can always ask and challenge outcomes.

Supervision and support will also be available at any time. Just ask ‘to take Teddy for a walk’.

Do not assume that it won’t happen here or that it “can’t possibly be our kids or families”.

This complacency is where mistake and accidents happen - which is why we need to maintain the highest possible standards at all times.